Tag Archives: Graham Simpson

21st October 2008- Championship, Watford 2 Cardiff City 2

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Jay Bothroyd tripled his goal tally for the season to rescue a point for Cardiff away to 10-man Watford.

The Hornets stormed into a two goal lead thanks to efforts from John-Joe O’Toole and Will Hoskins, before Tamas Priskin was sent off for violent conduct.

Let’s get it out of the way, then: Tamas, you’re a blithering idiot. Just at the point where you’d started to think that, with Will Hoskins guiding the midfield into the opposition’s vulnerable areas quite brilliantly, we could really do some damage on the break as Cardiff pressed forward. Just at the point where you’ve scored a couple of goals and given your Watford career some desperately-needed momentum. Just at the point where your rival is returning from injury. You have blancmange for brains, sir.

http://watford.fcdb.info?s=32572&id=4828

4th October 2008- Championship, Watford 2 Preston North End 1

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Watford came back from a goal down to earn a win over Preston thanks to Tommy Smith’s 50th goal for the club.

A quite ridiculously open game of football that looked like delivering many more goals at each end. Due in no small part to our formation – going 4-4-2 without John Eustace in midfield was always going to be a high risk strategy. We had enough to make it pay off; all six of our “attacking” players had good afternoons.

20th September 2008-Championship, Watford 2 Reading 2

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The ‘Ghost Goal’ game where Stuart Attwell awarded a goal to Reading on the strength of his Assistant Referee Nigel Bannister telling him he thought he’d seen the ball cross the goalline despite being the only one in the whole ground to think so. It was awarded as a John Eustace own goal.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4822
BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Championship-_-Watford-2-2-ReadingDownload

Watford were denied a win by a late penalty – and a farcical decision to allow an earlier goal to stand. Linesman Nigel Bannister flagged for a Reading goal instead of a corner after John Eustace challenged Noel Hunt and, incredibly, a goal was awarded.

BHappy image report: Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. What a completely mental decision.

Phantom goal will haunt rookie referee

Tilehurst End: Random Royal Moments: That Ghost Goal At Vicarage Road

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16th September 2008- Championship, Watford 1 Plymouth Argyle 2

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Karl Duguid and Luke Summerfield fired Pymouth to the win they needed to rise off the foot of the table as Watford fell to a first home loss this season.

BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Championship-_-Watford-1-2-PlymouthDownload

What it all boils down to is that we don’t have enough goals in the team. By a long chalk. So going behind will always leave us with a bit of a problem, dramatic victories over Ipswich notwithstanding. We weren’t great in the first half hour last night but we were doing OK, by some distance the better side. After going behind we looked increasingly desperate and clueless, borne of not quite knowing where one goal, let alone two, was going to come from. Nothing that we didn’t fear and expect; that’s what you get for (having to be) selling all your leading goalscorers.

http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4821
https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2008-09-16
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/16-september-2008/

16th August 2008- Championship, Watford 1 Charlton Athletic 0

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4816

BBC SportTommy Smith’s fierce strike gave Watford victory over 10-man Charlton.

BBC-SPORT-_-Football-_-Championship-_-Watford-1-0-CharltonDownload

BHappy imageNew passing game, new passing formation. Fine. But the real benefit thus far has been the protection afforded the defence. It speaks volumes that on a day when John Eustace was below par, Charlton rarely got more than a sniff – having Eustace and Williamson, fantastic today, as two sitting midfielders makes us a whole lot more secure. It does ask a lot of the four attacking players though (4-3-3 my arse). Speaking of whom….

https://www.soccerbase.com/matches/results.sd?date=2008-08-16
https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/league-championship/16-august-2008/

11th May 2008- Championship Playoff Semi-Final First Leg, Watford 0 Hull City 2

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I haven’t done the research but I think we must have set a record of being the only club to ever achieve our lowest league attendance of the season in the first leg of a playoff game.  We had attracted over 15,000 to every other league game in 07/08 but our terrible form of just one win in 14 games which saw us scrape into the playoffs meant only 14,713 turned up. In comparison 18,535 attended the first leg against Birmingham in 1999, the third highest home crowd of the 98/99 season.

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http://watford.fcdb.info?id=4812

BBC SportGoals from veteran pair Nicky Barmby and Dean Windass put Hull within sight of the Championship play-off final.  Watford had a goal harshly disallowed in the fourth minute and fell behind shortly after when Fraizer Campbell set up Barmby to sidefoot home.

skyTo make matters worse for Adrian Boothroyd’s men, skipper John Eustace was given a straight red card after a second-half scuffle.

BHappy image Yes, okay, so we lost.  And we can’t defend.  And, well, Dean Windass.  But that was rather fun wasn’t it? 

https://oldwatford.com/2008/05/13/14th-may-2008-championship-playoff-semi-final-second-leg-hull-city-4-watford-1-hull-city-won-6-1-on-aggregate/